A new study has recommended the nuclear powers of the world reduce their stockpiles to no more than 100 nukes each

“If we use 1,000 nuclear warheads against an enemy and no one retaliates, we will see about 50 times more Americans die than did on 9/11 due to the after-effects of our own weapons.”

In the first such study of its kind, scientists analysed the “environmental blow-back” of a one-way but massive nuclear strike.

Based on models including those of burnable materials in cities, they calculated the amount of soot and dust that would be flung into the air by the blasts, the consequent blocking out of the sun and the atmospheric damage.

Following the blast the study suggests up to 2 billion people could be at risk of famine from the atmospheric damage of the cavalcade of nukes

They found that the “nuclear autumn” of such destruction would damage agricultural output by up to 20 per cent, enough to affect widespread food shortages even on the other side of the world.

The researchers recommend that: “No country should have more nuclear weapons than the number necessary for unacceptable levels of environmental blowback on the nuclear power’s own country if they were used.”

Analysts agree that if 100 weapons were fired at a densely populated city, like one of China’s more highly inhabited areas, the blast would kill over 30 million people.

But in the wake the strike global food shortages would likely occur potentially putting around 2 billion people at risk of falling victim to famine.

HOLE IN ONE

EYE FOR AN EYE

Pearce added: “We assume severe rationing, which is the best way to keep the most people alive when there is this level of food shortage.

“It means anyone who would die of starvation is immediately cut off from food. I don’t think rationing would go overly smoothly – a lot more people would die in violence internally than what we estimated based on lack of calories.”

The researchers advise all nuclear powers to scale back to no more than 100 nuclear weapons each.

The BBC message Brits would hear in a Cold War nuclear attack read by the late Peter Donaldson

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.